Paris Pictures!

Paris Pictures!

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan#100167

More to come...

Hey guys.  Sorry I've been falling behind on my blogging.  I had the best intentions to keep it up, but as we know life gets in the way.

I'm at the globe right now, the coffee house near my apartment.  For some reason I actually have work to do...yuck.  I have a bunch of papers and such due this week and next week and some final projects coming up.  My hope is to knock them out in the next couple days and then update my blog with spring break and some other exciting tidbits from Prague.

Hope you guys are all doing well.  Don't forget to send updates on your lives as well.  Some of you have been great about it and others (you know who you are)...pretty much suck.  

Have a great weekend and Happy Pesach!

Lisa

Venice

Spring Break Pictures: Venice

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan#100142&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Siena and Rome

Spring Break Pictures: Siena and Rome

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan#100134&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Florence Pictures

Spring Break Pictures: Florence!

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan#100104&bgcolor=black&view=grid

PARIS!

This weekend I ventured out of Prague and out to Paris where I met Rachel Lansing and Steph Meyer for a weekend excursion.  Paris is by far my favorite city that I've visited so far.  We had a picture perfect weekend and I honestly could not have asked for anything more.

I flew out Thursday night to meet the girls.  I arrived at Orly about an hour and a half before they did.  After spending some time in the airport I heard from Rachel that their flight was delayed.  No big deal.  A few minutes later more news came: they were being rerouted to Charles de Goille, the other airport in Paris.  Way to make things interesting.  I went to the information desk to explore my options.  Low and behold I had 2 choices: take a taxi to the hotel for $80 euros or take a bus to the other airport for $16 euros.  I chose the bus.  The driver told me the arrival terminal for Easy Jet and dropped me off there.  When I didn't see their flight on the screen I went to information again.  No need to worry, they arrive on the other side of the airport.  After about a 25 minute walk across the airport (it's in a circle but you can't walk straight around- instead I had to go upstairs, downstairs, across, etc) I arrived at their arrival gate.  I sat down to wait for their flight, which had been further delayed, when along comes a homeless man grunting in French.  He walked up to the garbage can, turned the bag inside out, watched the trash fall on the floor, and laughing began kicking it across the room.  When he was satisfied he found the other garbage can in the room. This time he dramatically picked pieces out of the trash throwing them over his back behind him onto the floor, the whole time talking under his breath and laughing in French.  It was quite interesting.  Soon after my adventure the girls arrived and we headed to our hotel.  We had found the hotel online and were staying near the Arc de Triomphe...supposedly.  It turned out our hotel was quite interesting to say the least.  It was more on the outskirts of the city and I would by no means call it a 3 star hotel as the website did...  The room was clean enough to spend the night and we decided to change hotels in the morning.  We sat up talking and laughing for hours before finally falling asleep.

Friday morning we woke up and went to the Best Western at the Champs Elysees right by the Arc de Triomphe.  We emerged from the subway into a gorgeous neighborhood in the heart of the downtown area.  What a difference!  We dropped our bags at the hotel and left to go to the Eiffel Tower where we planned to go on a bike tour of the city.  After some fancy dance moves to get on and off the bike, Rachel got her bearings and we were ready to go.  The tour took us around the whole city!  Our tour guide, Graham, was 22 and had just graduated from Texas.  In an effort to avoid a 9-5 suit and tie job (he was a finance major) he came abroad for one last horrah before heading off to law school.  We rode around the city stopping at key land marks to learn about their history and significance.  The tour was a great way to see the majority of the city in an efficient way while still learning about what we were seeing.  The weather worked in our favor and we enjoyed riding around in the 60 degree and sunny weather!  The tour ended around 3 near the Eiffel Tower.  At this point we decided to go up the tower.  I never could have imagined all that was about to unfold in front of my eyes.  We stepped off the elevator and onto the platform.  All 3 of our jaws dropped.  The city is magnificent.  It has a strange ambiance with a perfect balance of classic architecture paired with a new and modern approach.  The city buildings are mostly white and the city is remarkably clean.  Greenery surrounds the buildings and grassy areas and parks are common.  The flowers had bloomed adding color and life to the already jaw dropping view.  We left the Eiffel Tower and began on our way back to the hotel to shower and change before dinner.  Graham recommended a local Bistro and had called to make us reservations.  Ironically enough all three of us love escargot and the restaurant was known for this dish.  We ordered a traditional French meal and weren't disappointed.  The food melted in our mouth and the bottle of wine was a great addition.  We had a long dinner and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.  The perfect end to the perfect day: seeing the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  Wow.  I've grown up seeing pictures, but the pictures can't possibly do it justice.  The tower grabs you by the heart and pulls you in.  It's nearly impossible not to be overcome and moved by its beauty.  As I hit the fluffy pillow in my 5 star hotel room I couldn't help but think how lucky I was.  Not only am I traveling the world, but I was in one of the most renowned cities in the world with two of my closest life friends.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

Saturday was our museum day.  First stop: the Louvre.  We went here to see the Mona Lisa.  As we walked throughout we saw some painters with set up stands replicating the famous paintings of the museum.  They worked with such precision and intrigue.  Each painter would paint a couple of strokes, step back and look, walk around, and go back to paint a few more.  I was surprised to see that the museum allowed painters to paint inside, but it was cool to watch them at work.  Some of the paintings took up huge walls, walls taller and longer than walls in many of our houses.  Despite their grandiose size and explicit detail most people admired them in passing.  What a contrast compared to the Mona Lisa, a small and protected painting, surrounded by people admiring it for long periods on end.  Steph, Rachel, and I are not huge museum people so we saw what we wanted to see, as well as what we passed on the way, and then went on our way.  After the Louvre we went to the Pompidoo, a modern art museum.  You felt the modernity of the building the second it came into sight.  The building's walls are unfinished, tubes are exposed, and elevators serve as central focal points.  Your eyes wander in excitement and it's hard to pick which direction to look first.  The art inside is as exciting as the structure of the museum itself.  The set up of the exhibits is unique to the art in the exhibit.  Light and darkness add meaning to the paintings, sculptures, etc.  The art was very different than anything else I've seen in any art museum and was cutting edge modern art that provoked interesting questions, conversations, and discussions.  At this point we decided to head to Versaille.  The city, which is a 30 minute train ride away, houses a castle and gardens and was the grounds on which the Treaty of Versaille was signed.  The trip took a couple of hours and was well worth every minute.  On the way back we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  The circular and steep staircase of about 300 stairs made our legs burn.  The stinging sensation was quickly alleviated when we emerged at the top.  The city once again lay before us.  This time the Eiffel Tower was apparent in the skyline and shone like a treasure in the distance. We took in the view and enjoyed the sun.  On the way down we stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It was almost dinner time and we decided to walk around a bit before heading off to dinner.  We has another traditional French meal coupled with much conversation and many laughs.

We saved Sunday to be our shopping day.  We didn't realize, at the time, that this was a mistake as many places are closed on Sundays.  The concierge told us which area to go shop in, an area which had open stores.  It ended up being the Jewish Quarter area.  One of the first things we came across was a Jewish bakery/ deli.  Like 3 kids in a candy shop we bought a challah with raisins and tore into it.  None of us have had challah since we've been abroad and we couldn't get enough of it.  We tore into it and pretty much devoured it in the middle of the street.  It tasted like a little piece of fluffy heaven.  Most of the stores in the area didn't open until 11.  We found a Judaica store with some very pretty pieces.  I bought a beautiful hamsa necklace.  We further explored the area and the stores began to open.  We laughed our way through our last couple hours together in what had easily become all of our favorite city.  

The weekend may have been my best to date.  I feel oddly attached to a city that I never anticipated liking so much.  The city, events of the weekend, and life long friends created memories that will last a lifetime.  

LONDON!

After a long and busy week of midterms and papers (yes I do go to school here and have work to do, despite the fact that I always put it off...very unlike me...)  I headed to London for the start of spring break.  

I landed safely in London and ventured into town to meet up with some Camp Chi friends.  We hit the ground running, starting with a traditional English lunch: fish and chips.  Brett took us a downtown pub and taught us the correct way to eat the dish (you put vinegar and salt on the fish).  It was pretty good, though kind of heavy, but definitely a good choice given where I was.  We left lunch and went to the British Museum.  The museum is filled with stolen goods from all over the world: Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.  Some of the items and exhibits were interesting, but given that I'm not a huge museum person, I probably didn't appreciate it as much as some of the other sites I saw.  We left the museum and headed to Piccadilly Circus, the downtown theatre district to see if we could get tickets for a show.  Piccadilly Circus reminded me a lot of New York.  It's a very busy area with lots of theatres, bright lights, shopping, and restaurants.  Brett recommended History Boys, a studio show based on life in London.  We were able to find cheap tickets and bought them.  We had some time before the show and decided to go to Buckingham Palace.  On the walk there it started to snow.  We walked through St James Park and to the Palace, took lots of pictures, and decided to go warm up with some high tea.  The tea and finger sandwiches were refreshing and sheltered us from the cold and snow.  We left tea in time to go to the show.  The show had a small cast, simplistic set, and detailed plot which shed light on the culture of an all boys school in London.  It was very entertaining.  

Friday was a packed day.  There were many sites I wanted to see and I carefully scheduled the day to fit in as much as possible.  I saw many of the famous London sights including Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Big Ben, the houses of parliament, Toefgler Square, the National Portrait Gallery, and others.  The London Eye is larger than I could have ever imagined.  I found Big Ben to be unimpressive, though I compared it to the Astronomical Clock, to which nothing truly compares.  The front of the National Portrait Gallery houses statutes, a large fountain, and a huge open area with some park benches and many people.  It was a great place to stop and rest while enjoying some of London's finest people watching.  After a quick break I ventured over to the Camden Street Market, a popular Friday outdoor market.  The market was a unique mix of clothes, bags, pashminas, fresh fruit, fresh fish, carnival food, artsy pieces, jewelry, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It was eclectic and exciting not to leave out cultural at the same time.  I spent a couple hours walking the market and then headed back to Brett's to shower and get ready for the night.  I joined Jen Tenzer, a former Elm Place grad, ice skater, and Camp Chier for a night on the town.  Her and I and some of her friends went to Cheers, a local bar for a couple drinks and some dancing.  It was a great night.

Saturday morning I went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  This was probably not the best day to go, as it was packed beyond belief and hard to see what was going on beyond all the tourists and cameras.  I found my way through the nearby gardens and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings of the nature around me.  I left this part of town to head to Knotting Hill and the famous Portobella Market.  On the walk to the market you pass many movie setting houses.  I kept looking for Hugh Grant, but sadly couldn't find him.  This market was much more upscale than the Camden market and also very enjoyable.  I spent some time walking the market, saw a few more sites, and went to dinner with the Chi crew.  Brett has made reservations for us at Absolute Ice Bar for Saturday night.  From the outside the ice bar  looks like any other restaurant or bar.  When you walk in the employees drape a furry cape over you and pin thick gloves to the cape.  You then walk through sliding double doors into ice world.  The walls, bar, chairs, and tables are all made of ice.  Scattered throughout the room are ice sculptures with dancing people carved into them.  Drinks are made solely with absolute vodka and poured into glasses made of ice.  The room is much smaller than I imagined but it's more than enough to occupy you for your 50 minute stay.  We spent a good 30 minutes taking pictures and 10 minutes enjoying our drinks.  The last 10 minutes were a bit cold but we nevertheless spent it looking around and talking about how cool the bar was.  It was definitely a unique experience and something to see.  

I left Ice Bar and headed for the airport where I would attempt to sleep for 3 or 4 hours before my flight to Italy. 

I'm still alive...

The last time I posted was before my spring break extravaganza.  Wow.  I have lots to share.  I'm going to break this up into a bunch of smaller posts and try to get them all up before I leave for Paris tomorrow.

Bear with me...

my birthday and Steph's visit!

Hey!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I last checked in a few days before my birthday.  I had a GREAT birthday!  Wednesday night we had a bunch of people over at our apartment for a big birthday celebration/pre game.  A lot of my guy friends were leaving Thursday morning for the weekend but all made a point to stop by and hang out for a bit even though they weren't going out.  It was very nice.  My roomies and I hit the town in celebration.  It was a very fun night.  Thursday we went to a Czech hockey game.  Hockey is a HUGE sport here.  CEA planned the trip for us and there were about 40 kids from my program at the game.  It was a quarterfinals playoff game.  We had some pivo (beer) and cheered on the czech team.  Sadly, they lost in a shootout in double overtime.  Despite the loss the game was a lot of fun.  

Thursday night I went to dinner with my roommates and then to rap night at Radost.  We danced on stage for a while, met some random people who were in Prague on spring break from other programs and cities, schmoozed with the bartender until he gave us free birthday shots etc.  It was truly a great night (and yes I remember it!)

The weekend started off great and only got better as Steph Meyer and friends came on Friday!  A couple of girls studying in Prague and I met Steph and her friends at the airport.  It was pretty much a scene out of a movie when they got off the plane and we were standing with signs yelling and screaming.  The people in the airport were probably annoyed by our Americanness but oh well....you only live once!  We took the girls to Bohemian Bagel (an American style bagel/ sandwich restaurant) for lunch, explored the city, had a few beers, and headed out to dinner.  After a very late dinner, we didn't finish eating until about 1am, we went to 5 story club.  It was quite an experience!  We hit all of the floors, dancing and exploring on each one.  I somehow convinced everyone to dance on stage and have great pictures of all of us.  Steph and two of her friends, Dara, and Effie slept over that night and we had a huge sleepover/slumber party.  Believe it or not, this was the first time Steph and I have ever really slept in the same room...another thing for us to cross off the Steph and Sheridan list!

Saturday we hit up the Prague Castle, Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and the Easter festival.  Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, and some other places have been taken over by the Easter Festival.  There are stands everywhere with every type of food: grilled meats, vegies, corn, crepes, waffle cakes, beer, chocolate covered fruit, skewers, fresh cooked/ roasted nuts, and the list goes on...we pretty much ate our way around for a while before settling into food coma.  Saturday night Steph and some of her friends and I met up with my roommates at one of our favorite cafes by my house for dinner.  After we went to beer factory.  Beer factory is this neat underground bar where each table has its own tap.  You tap your own beer and the machine keeps a tab.  There's also a cool contraption on the table that lets you wash your glasses.  Beer factory was playing crazy old music that you just had to sing and dance to when it came on.  In true fashion we danced/ made fun of how some of the Europeans were dancing and pretty much went nuts.  There were about 15 of us there; we all looked liked idiots and completely loved every second of it.

Sunday morning we went to Radost for brunch.  It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been here.  It was honestly sooo good.  The restaurant is also very trendy.  All the seats are couches and big loungy chairs.  It's very retro and swanky.  I split from the group for a bit to go home and write a paper and do some work.  Steph and some of her friends went to the Jewish Quarter and walked around the festival a bit more.  We all met up later in the afternoon.  Steph and her roommate in Florence, Miriam spent the night at my place. We sat up talking for hours.  Miriam is from Deerfield and went to Camp Beber.  We know all of the same people.  It's a crazy small world.  We lost track of time and didn't go to bed for hours later.  

Monday morning I took Steph and friends to breakfast at Bohemian (they wanted American food one last time before they went back to eating all Italian) before they left for the airport. 

It was honestly a great weekend.  I'm so happy Steph was able to come and hang out and help me celebrate my birthday!  (speaking of she brought the most beautiful bracelet for my birthday.  it was the nicest thing!)  It's very cool to be able to travel with friends from home and meet up in foreign countries.  We took tons of pictures and can't wait to send them to the Camp Chi alumni network.  Jamie and Brad will laugh when they see Steph and Sheridan traveling the world together, though I don't think they'll be at all surprised.

This is long so I'm going to split this into a few different posts.  Pics to come later.  

Interlaken Photos

 You can see my Interlaken pics here:

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan/100081

If you can't see them email me your email address at lsheridan@wisc.edu and I can email you the album.

Interlaken

Oh Interlaken, where to even begin...

Jess, Lizzy, Nina, and I left for Interlaken Wednesday afternoon.  The trip started great.  We made it to the airport and our plane took off on time.  We even landed in Geneva 20 minutes early.  As we were going through customs we started to talk to one of the security guards.  He was asking us a whole bunch of questions and joking with us.  He asked where we were going and we said Bern.  He looked at his watch and said the last train leaves in 1 minute you better run.  The four of us looked at each other and took off across the airport.  It was literally a scene out of a movie.  We ran downstairs as the train was about to leave.  We somehow talked our way onto the train as it was leaving.  We felt very lucky until we heard the next set of news...our train arrived in Bern at 1am and the next train for Interlaken didn't leave until 6am.  We had 5 hours to kill in an outdoor train station.  

After walking around the station to find that no stores, waiting rooms, or restaurants were open, we decided to explore town.  A cab driver told us of a restaurant that was open down the street.  We shlepped our luggage down the cobblestone roads and finally found the restaurant.  It was open until 3:30.  We sat for a bite to eat and laughed about our experiences and trip.  At 3:30 we were kicked out and went back to the train station.  We curled up in a corner trying to take turns sleeping.  A drunk man approached us and asked us where we were from.  Jess replied we're from Guam and we don't talk to strangers.  He mocked us for a minute and then stumbled away.  At 5am the waiting room opened and we were able to finally have a warm place to sit for a few minutes.

We boarded the train to Interlaken at 6 and arrived about 40 minutes later.  The train ride was beautiful.  On one side you could see the mountains and on the other the countryside.  We successfully arrived in Interlaken and made our way down the street to Balmers, the hostel we were staying at.  After checking in we crashed for a couple hours.  Thursday afternoon Lizzy and I went paragliding.  It was a very cool experience.  I was attached to an instructor and a parachute.  We started at the top of the mountain and ran off the edge of it until we were flying.  You can steer the parachute and the guy and I did a bunch of tricks.  We went zig zagging across the sky and did some spin moves and swirls.  The view was to die for.  There are two lakes on either side of the city and they are connected with various rivers.  All of this is surrounded by the mountains, some which were covered with snow and others that were vacant.  I have lots of pictures from the air so you can see what I'm talking about.  We spent some time exploring the town in the afternoon before getting ready to go out.  We spent the early part of the night in our hostel.  It was quite the place to be.  Everyone was around and hanging out and I met some very cool people.  Our hostel has one of the only night clubs in town so we went out there every night.  I ran into some Wisco people and a group of guys from our trip met us in Interlaken as well.  Thursday night was more low key but I did spend a good portion of the night dancing, which is always a good time in my book.

Friday morning Molly and Jordan arrived.  We spent the morning exploring the rest of town and went on a tour of a chocolate factory in the early afternoon.   The chocolate factory is known and has won awards for having the best chocolate in the world.  I have to say it was the best chocolate I've ever tasted.  We learned how the chocolate is harvested and how the candies are made.  We were even able to make some candy and were fed the entire time.  The room was filled with chocolate statues made for different events.  There was a dog, a ferris wheel, a ski mountain and a skier, a picture in a frame (both the picture and the frame are 100% chocolate) and some others.  You can see them in my pictures!  The tour lasted about an hour.  It rained most of the day Friday so most of the outdoor activities were cancelled but we still had a great time.

Saturday morning we woke up and went skiing.  We went to rent out skis and found out the mountain was closed due to the wind.  Not good news.  After breakfast we went back and heard that half the mountain was open.  We rented our skis and went.  You have to take a train to the mountain from Interlaken. The train ride was beautiful.  It let us off mid mountain and we took the ski lift up not realizing we were going straight to the top of the mountain.  We got off and were immediately hit by the wind.  It was very strong.  We started on our way down.  The middle and bottom of the mountain were far less windy and actually very enjoyable to ski.  We skied many runs and paths.  It was beautiful and so much fun.  I didn't realize how much I've missed skiing.  It felt great to be back out there.  We had signed up for an excursion to go night sledding and for fondue dinner for Saturday night.  There were about 50 college aged kids on the excursion and we met a bunch of people.  Sledding took place on the mountain.  It was very cool and a lot of fun.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and spent Saturday night chilling with the girls.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to enjoy our last day.  We had about half a day before the trip back.  There were a few places we wanted to go back to in town so we did that.  I bought some chocolate to bring back, and even bought some for mom and dad.  (I hope it's still here when you guys get here...don't worry I hid it!)

The trip back was very smooth.  It seemed luck was not on our side this weekend.  The weather was not great and Jess and Nina tried to skydive 3 times and were shut out by the weather each time.  Despite all of this I had truly an AMAZING weekend.  The mountains are breathtaking and I'll never forget the images and view from the city and mountaintop.  I feel very lucky to have gone to Interlaken and skied the Alps.  It was an unforgettable weekend.

My roommates have started the countdown to my birthday.  I feel old.  Yikes.

Hope all is well.  More to come later...

Lisa

Off to Interlaken!

Happy Weekend!  It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm done with class for the week.  It's been a BEAUTIFUL week here.  The sun has been out and the temperature has been in the mid to high 50s and even the low 60s.  

Sunday I remembered I go to school here and had to sit down for a few hours and do some work.  My roommates and I ventured to The Globe, a coffee house a few blocks away from us.  The atmosphere was great and I got a lot done. 

I had a pretty low key week.  I wasn't feeling great and spent some time hanging around doing work and resting.  Luckily I'm feeling much better now.  I had class this morning and then packed.  I leave to go to Interlaken tonight and I can't wait!  I'm going with 3 of my roommates and 2 of the other girls we're hanging out with.  Some of the guys from our trip are coming as well so it should be a blast.  We're going to try to ski tomorrow (though I'm not sure how that will work as the weather is nice there too).  The town is supposedly really cute so we'll check that out, have some fondue, go for a hike, night sled, etc.  It should be a great time.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update before I head out for the weekend.  I won't have my computer in Switzerland so it'll be pretty hard to communicate.  I'll be back in Prague Sunday afternoon and I'll send more news then.  Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Lisa

P.S. HAPPY 21st JENNA! 

Update

Hey guys.  Sorry I haven't been great at this blogging thing...  I'm working on it...

There's lots to tell you but I don't have a lot of time now so this is going to be quick.

I've settled into my new home and love it!  I can spend days roaming the streets and feel as though I get lost in the beauty that surrounds me.  I know my way around which is a great feeling. 

Saturday afternoon Molly, Lizzy and I ended up at a bakery.  We had walked past it many times before and never ventured in.  After a long walk along the river we decided to go.  We bought some bread and decided to make Bruschetta.  Lizzy had also bought the ingredients to make baked brie so we spent the later part of the afternoon making appetizers.  They were delicious!

Yesterday it was 65 degrees outside.  A couple of my roommates and I went to have lunch at an outdoor cafe in Old Town Square.  We walked all side streets to get there and sat outside soaking up the rays and enjoying our lunch.  There was lots to see and great people watching.  One of our favorites was a lady with hair down to her ankles.  It was very thick and looked like she had crimped it that morning to go out.  It was actually nuts.  After what was an amazing lunch we went and sat in the middle of the square.  There was a movie filming in the square but the square was still open to the public.  We sat and watched the movie filming for a bit before venturing off for some gelato.  Last night we all cooked dinner together and curled up to watch a movie.

This morning I'm at an internet cafe by my flat.  The internet in my flat always cuts in and out so its frustrating to try and get stuff done there.  This is my first time here, at the Globe, though people from years past had told me to come.  I actually really like it.  It's a quiet and relaxed atmosphere.  I had a cup of coffee, did some reading, and am responding to emails as well as blogging.  It's been a good morning.  I have class at 2:45 and go until 9:30.  

I leave for Interlaken Wednesday night.  I can't wait!  I've heard from many people that it's one of the best trips they've ever taken.  I plan to ski, night sled, hike, etc.  I'll be in Prague the following weekend for my birthday.  The next weekend my roommates and I are taking day trips.  We haven't quite decided where we're going yet, though we're going to stay around the Czech Republic and try to hit up two or three places.  After that I head to London for 3 days and then meet my parents in Italy!

Lots to look forward to...

Hope all is well at home.  Keep me posted on your lives too!

xoxo

Lisa

Let's try again...

Supposedly half of you can't see my pictures.  Let's try again...

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan

Let me know if it doesn't work so that I can fix it

Northern Bohemia

This weekend my program took a trip to Northern Bohemia, in the northern Czech Republic. On Friday we went to a wine tasting and a castle. We tasted 6 different wines, all made in Northern Bohemia. Most of them were really good. I enjoyed the white wine more than the red wine. I found the red wines (there were 2 of them that we tried) to be bitter.

After the wine tasting we went to a castle nearby. The castle was very interesting to see though not as lavish as I was expecting. The detailing on the walls, trim, and ceilings is incredible.

Friday night we stayed in a hotel. I roomed with Molly. A bunch of us had a few drinks at the bar in the hotel before going to Disco Oko, the local disco. Most of our program went to the disco and I met a lot of new people from our program. It was great. The disco was VERY European. There was lots of techno and we danced all night.

Saturday we went to a glass blowing factory. We learned about and saw the process of how glass is made. The factory was very interesting, not the nicest working conditions, but the process is intricate and the glass was beautiful. The factory makes all custom pieces. After this we took a bus ride for another hour to a mountainous area. We hiked up the mountain to the top where we saw a famous broadcasting building. The building is positioned at the top of the mountain in a circular format. It is no longer used as a broadcasting building and has since been turned into a hotel/ monument/ restaurant. The hike up was beautiful. We were able to see out over the city. It was also interesting that certain sides of the mountain had snow and some skiing while other sides were pure greenery. We all sat down to relax and have some coffee in the broadcast building before heading back down.

After the hike we had some time to spend in town. A bunch of us went to eat. We split the bill and were too lazy to split the change. Lucky for us there was a casino next to the restaurant. We decided to put all the of change on red on the roulette table. It was a spontaneous move but we went with it. We won the first roll and became loud boisterous Americans. We decided to flip a coin to decide which color for the second roll. We won 2 rolls, lost, 1, and won the last roll. We cashed out our 2000 crown (about $100) and went to the bar to celebrate! It was a ton of fun and truly an amazing day.

On Sunday we went to another Castle. This castle was one of the most unbelievable places I've ever seen. From the outside you would never know it was a castle. On the inside it had the most exquisite decorations and detailing. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I have very few (my friend Mike would sneak a couple pictures when he thought no one was looking so I've stolen his pictures).

Sunday afternoon we came back to Prague and all crashed around our flat, did some homework, and got ready for the week.

That's about it for now. Talk soon!

Lisa

More pics!

Some people said they couldn't access my pictures... if you are having trouble try to type in:

http://web.mac.com/LDSheridan/Site

This should take you to the main page (probably the first album I uploaded).  After that you can go from album to album by clicking on the links on the top of the page.  There are 3 albums up now!

Enjoy!

I forgot part of the html to see my pictures.  Try this:

http://web.mac.com/ldsheridan/site/praha%21.html

Hopefully this will work...

I started school on Monday.  The culture here is very different than at home.  People walk into class late all the time and chat to their neighbors during class.  There is a very low level of respect for professors.  It's actually kind of annoying.  Luckily only one of my classes is like that.  In the rest of them the teachers command attention which is great.  The classes seem interesting so far.  They are each 3 hours...sooooo long.  Each class only meets once a week though so I can't really complain.  I have class Monday night from 6:30- 9:30, twice on Tuesday, and twice on Wednesday.  I'm done on Wednesday at 5:30.  I figure this gives me leeway to leave early or come back late from a weekend trip if I end up wanting to.

My roommates are absolutely fabulous.  We're having a great time together and got really lucky with our housing situation.  We've spent a bunch of time exploring the city and going out.  The clubs here are very fun and many of them have dancing which I love!

Anyway we're about to go out but I wanted to say a quick hello.  I also uploaded some of my pictures.  Here's the link:  http://web.mac.com/ldsheridan/site

I'll put up a new link when I upload a new album.  Look for it in the next day or so.  Not all of the captions are complete, but I'll get around to it sooner or later.

Na shledanu (bye!)

And it begins...PRAHA!

Hey everyone.  Welcome to my blog.  Don't forget to check in for updates and to read about all of our exciting adventures.  I'll try to update this as often as possible...

Luckily I got out of Chicago before the storm hit yet the adventure started right away.  Our plane was hit by lightening landing in Chicago and was delayed while the airport people double and triple checked to make sure everything was ok.  We made up some time in the air but landed in Frankfurt about 5 minutes after my connecting flight left.  Luckily I met one of my roommates Molly and her twin brother Mike at Ohare.  We traveled the rest of the trip together which was very nice.  After a couple hours in the Frankfurt airport, and another delayed flight due to fog, we left for Prague.  We finally arrived, a bit late, but we made it!  One of the leaders of my program met us at the airport to take us to our flats.  

My flat is absolutely amazing!  I live in Praha 2 by Karlovo Namesti.  My program calls my apartment the dancing apartments because we're right next to a building that looks like its dancing.  (I don't really think it does but that's what people here say.)  There are 6 girls in my apartment: Jess (my roommate), Molly, Kyle, Jordan, and Sara.  Kyle is here for the year and she's been great in showing us around which has been a huge help.  We're also getting lost on our own which is always great.  

We had orientation on day 2 which was nice.  Everyone from our program was together and it was a great way to meet people.  I also lucked out because there are 3 CEA apartments in my building.  One building has 2 apartments and all of the other apartments are singles around town.  We've become good friends with everyone in the building and spend a lot of time together which is great.  There are always people around and everyone wants to go out and explore.

We've done lots of walking in and out of Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square as well as along the side streets.  The buildings are magnificent.  It seems that everywhere we go we find another beautiful building or landmark place.  The other day we had coffee at an outdoor cafe by the clock tower in Old Town Square.  The food here is also amazing.  We've been to lots of little cafes and restaurants and the food has been great.  I haven't tried any traditional Czech food yet, but I'm sure I will soon.  The beer is also great!  I've tried many new kinds and they don't compare to beer in the states.  Luckily for us, beer is cheaper than water! 

We went to the museum of torture on Friday.  It's hard to believe that people used to use those torture techniques.  They seem very barbaric and unjust- though I know people didn't think that was the case at that point in time.  Today we went to the Prague Castle, the largest land mass in all of Europe. The walk up the hill was breathtaking.  The cobblestone streets twist and turn and you lookout at the city and the river.  The view from the top is also amazing.  You can see the whole city, the river, multiple bridges, and the amazing architecture of all the buildings.  We weren't able to go into the castle today but loved being able to walk around in 50 degree weather with the sun shining.  (Sorry to all of you battling snow storms!)

The city is very easy to navigate.  We take the tram and the metro everywhere and luckily both are right near my flat.  

The nightlife is also great!  People go out late and the clubs don't really close.  We went to Mecca- a dance club- one night and danced to crazy techno until 5 in the morning.  It was a great night.  We made friends with people from Russia and Portugal; they were a riot.  We've also hit up a couple pubs and more low key bar type places.  I've loved them all.

I think that's about it for now.  I start class on Monday and will probably settle into more of a routine then.  I'm hoping to write a short post everyday or every other day once things get going.  Sorry for the long post right now- just wanted to catch you all up.

Hope all is well at home! Don't forget to send me updates on what you guys are doing.  You can also reach me on skype: my name is sheridanlisa

Talk Soon!

Lisa